I HAVE ALWAYS HAD A SOFT SPOT FOR RESTAURANTS WHICH INVOLVE THE DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY, THE THROWING OF HARD DANGEROUS OBJECTS, AND OTHER THEATRICAL GIMMICKS AS PART OF THE RITUAL OF EATING THERE. Com Nieu Sai Gon is one such a restaurant...
Virtual Tourist Pez had this to say about this place: "Off-the-chart amazing food, your mouth will be electrified for hours. To a Westerner it's a dive. Go for the food. Not tourist-friendly. Order the crispy rice (com nieu, the restarurant's namesake). Cooked in a clay pot, they shatter the pot, fling the rice past the faces of suprised diners into the capable hands of your waiter. Sure it's a gimmick, but it's cool and tastes great. Again, not tourist-friendly, go with a local."
Com Nieu Sai Gon is reputed to serve the best thit heo kho to in the city, but above all the place is famous for its signature dishes, com nieu and com dap. However, as the Travelling Hungryboy from Singapore cautions on his blog: "Did you ever see that Vietnam episode of A Cook's Tour where those rice things were thrown through the air after the waiters smashed the clay pots that they were grilled in? This branch (59 Ho Xuan Huong Street, District 3, +84-8-9302888) was presumably a bit more upscale than the other location, but it still featured the theatrics for this dish known as com dap dau hanh nuoc tuong. Yes, it was a gimmick, but I was suckered in.
"It turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Accompanied by a scallion and sesame topping, I had expected something spectacular, especially given my penchant for scorched rice as well as those seasonings. To my surprise, the dressing turned out to be sweet, and hence wasn't anything I particularly went nuts over. The rice was crispy, but a bit too much. At least it was only 15,000 Dong (US$1.15). Could the other dishes be any form of consolation at least?
"Well, we did get a number of other items that fared fine, such as some prawn rolls, pork knuckle, and a bean sprout-filled pancake/omelette-type thing called banh xeo. But none of these were any runaway hits for me, and some of the other items, such as an allegedly sour soup called canh chua, again turned out to be too sweet (they filled the thing with pineapple slices). Some tiny fish in a clay pot didn't quite hit home either. I'm still glad that I came to check out that rice thing though."
Note to self: While I have been a fan of the Asian blog and expat genre for 4 years now (ever since I discovered Popaghandi), it wasn't run until I found The Travelling Hungryboy (first post read September 11, 2007, and it turns out he was in Vietnam at the same I was last there) that I realised what blogs were all about. It is strange I didn't get it before, but I can see it clearly now: blogs are the online representations of character, in avatar form and intimately connected with a niche product or lifestyle. It is not enough just to write about your life: that is what I used to do, but nobody wanted to read about it. To really make it in the blogosphere, as I have realised today, you have to project both authority and an online personality which is two-dimensional (so it can fit on the screen), but also paradoxically bigger than life. You have to brand yourself, and you have to live the kind of life that a certain subculture fetishise (e.g. a club DJ spending a year in Bangkok.) You have to be the kind of person others would want to have a drink with.
Looking at the Travelling Hungryboy's blog in its current incarnation (at the top of the page there's a photo of a cocktail on a table on the observation deck of what looks like Changi Airport in Singapore, one of my favorite places in the world to hang out, looking all exotic and the very epitome of freedom)... looking at the blog and reading the up-front non-literary posts I know straight away that this is a guy I can drink with. And probably dine with, although he does have some strange hang-ups and tastes (for example an aversion to "sweet" food.) As the Travelling Hungryboy claims, he is an American living in Singapore who has the chance to travel frequently in Asia...
"Lotteria Vietnam is a joint venture between Vietnam's Thien Nhan II Ltd., Japan's Lotteria and the Sojitz Corp and South Korea's Lotteria. Being the first foreign fast food provider to begin operation in Vietnam quite early - in 1996 when the concept of fast food was something new to Vietnamese people, Lotteria Vietnam initially consisted of just several restaurants with a 'modest' record in revenue. After 10 years penetrating and developing the local market tirelessly, Lotteria Vietnam has now become the first choice of numerous customers, holding a 40-percent share of Vietnam's fast food market. Although the corporation has not yet reached its initial target in gaining profit, the future of Lotteria Vietnam is seen to be much brighter with its nonstop efforts and proper strategies to develop its brand in a potential market like Vietnam.
"'In fact, the corporation so far has just reached a breakeven point in the Vietnamese market. However, Lotteria Vietnam hasn't targeted short-term profits but long and sustainable business strategies,' said Mr. IL Sik Rho. What has made this group optimistic about the Vietnamese market? Let's have a look at positive changes in the number of Lotteria's customers. In 2004, the number of customers coming to Lotteria Vietnam restaurants was 950,000, which rose to 1.8 million in 2005 and is expected to reach 3.5 million this year. And the company also expects to earn a profit this year..."
LOTTERIA CAFES IN HO CHI MINH CITY: 64 Nguyen Dinh Chieu St. Dist. 1: (848) 824 3866.
I survived my meeting with J. and her cute Chinese friend -- we talked about a lot of stuff. I didn't eat anything, but drank two cups of orange juice. If I had decided to order some foodstuffs, I would have found Japanese teriyaki burgers and Korean bulgogi on the menu. J. and her friend said they liked Korean pop, learning new languages, that sort of thing. My migraine retreated. And I was on my way to... my first encounter with dog meat, later in the evening!
"Lotteria Vietnam is a joint venture between Vietnam's Thien Nhan II Ltd., Japan's Lotteria and the Sojitz Corp and South Korea's Lotteria. Being the first foreign fast food provider to begin operation in Vietnam quite early - in 1996 when the concept of fast food was something new to Vietnamese people, Lotteria Vietnam initially consisted of just several restaurants with a 'modest' record in revenue. After 10 years penetrating and developing the local market tirelessly, Lotteria Vietnam has now become the first choice of numerous customers, holding a 40-percent share of Vietnam's fast food market. Although the corporation has not yet reached its initial target in gaining profit, the future of Lotteria Vietnam is seen to be much brighter with its nonstop efforts and proper strategies to develop its brand in a potential market like Vietnam.